Update: This giveaway is now over. The winners were randomly selected by the giveaway system we used. Here they are: @sam_decker, @jdenham, and @gregoriusness.

Hullo y’all. We’re giving away 3 copies of travel photographer Trey Ratcliff’s latest book, A World in HDR. The book is filled with spectacular HDR photographs of scenes around the world, and also includes a solid tutorial in the back for learning how to create your own HDR images.

The book costs $30 on Amazon, and you can see some sample images and find out more on Trey’s website.

We’re going to be doing this giveaway a little differently: it’s going to be done completely through Twitter using a new system we developed. In the past we asked that you tweet certain keywords, and I used a custom-written program to collect all the tweets. The problem was that it wasn’t very transparent, and you didn’t even know whether we did in fact count your tweet as an entry.

So what’s our solution? Instead of using the behind-the-scenes program I wrote, I turned the system into a Twitter giveaway web app! Everything will be automated, and all you need to do is follow the instructions on the page and post a tweet through the app. When the giveaway is over, the application will randomly select and display the 3 winners using random.org.

To enter, simply post a tweet through the giveaway page!

You must tweet through the app in order to enter, since it tallies entries posted through the app rather than search on Twitter for matching tweets. You can also visit the giveaway through the following widget:

The application requires that you tweet http://j.mp/ppawihdr, which is a link back to this post. Unlike previous giveaways, you can say whatever else you want. You can even post a normal, everyday tweet through the app as long as the link is thrown in there.

The giveaway ends on the evening of February 21, which is this Sunday. Good luck!

P.S. If you run into any bugs in the app, please leave a comment here letting me know and I’ll get it fixed ASAP! This is the first giveaway ever through the app, but feel free to run your own!

Also, this giveaway is open to international readers as well!

Thanks to Trey for providing the books for this giveaway!

Our latest giveaway for a Tamron AF18-270mm is now over, and it was by far our most popular giveaway ever. We received 909 entries via comments and 543 entries via Twitter, for a grand total of 1452 entries.

And without further ado, the randomly selected winner of the lens is…

#460: Lydia King (@lydking)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lydking/4084984279/ one of the first pictures I’ve ever taken.

Here’s the photograph:

Congratulations Lydia! Please email editor@petapixel.com to claim your prize.

Thanks to everyone who participated in this giveaway. It was very interesting seeing all of the favorite photographs that were linked to as entries.

We have more giveaways lined up, so please stay tuned!

Update: This giveaway is now over. The three winners were randomly selected and announced below. Thanks for participating!

When Udi Tirosh over at DIYPhotography launched the Bokeh Masters Kit a few weeks ago, we said we’d be giving away a couple kits here on PetaPixel in early January 2010. Well, here it is! We’re giving away three (3) Masters Edition Bokeh Masters Kits that each normally cost $35. Over 500 of these bokeh-customizing kits have been sold since they were introduced.

To enter, all you have to do is answer the following question:

What is your favorite book?

There’s two ways to enter this contest, and you can use both methods to double your chances:

1. Leave your response as a comment (on this PetaPixel.com post)
2. Tweet your answer, and include the following link to this post anywhere in the tweet: http://j.mp/ppxlbmk

   As long as the link is found somewhere in your tweet, you will be entered in this giveaway.

We will randomly select the three winners in two days on 1/13/10, and announce the winners in this post. Good luck!

Thanks to Udi for donating the kits for this giveaway!

Winners

This giveaway is now over. We received 159 entries via comments and 108 entries via Twitter, for a total of 267 entries. Here are three winners we randomly selected:

#194: suprspi (@suprspi)

My favourite book atm is “The Way of Shadows” by Brent Weeks – it changes constantly though.

#67: Nianya (@MagicalMischief)

Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien.

#145: Saurabh (@sloth13)

Sarah Moon: Coincidences by Sarah Moon

Congratulations! Please email editor@petapixel.com to claim your prize.

Thanks everyone for participating in the contest and sharing your favorite books! We’ll have another contest soon, so stay tuned!

Merry Christmas! It has been a week already since we posted our latest giveaway for a Lensbaby Composer, and this one has been our most popular giveaway so far. We received a total of 584 comment entries and 427 entries through Twitter, for a whopping total of 1011 entries.

Without further ado, the randomly selected winner of a Lensbaby Composer and Creative Aperture Set is…

#581: Henning Wüst

The top item on his Christmas wishlist was:

simple wish: peace on earth

Congratulations! Please send an email to editor@petapixel.com to claim your prize (We emailed you as well).

A big thank you to everyone who participated. We hope you’re all having a fun and safe holiday season!

Image credit: white christmas by brianjmatis

Thanks to everyone who participated in our giveaway on black friday. In response to the question “what are you most thankful for?”, we received 80 comments and 33 tweets for 113 entries total.

Here are the randomly selected winners:

The winner of a Trade Secret Card Pack:

#108: headedforhades (@headedforhades)

I’m thankful for Petapixel’s tweets! ;o)

The three winners of Digital Photography School’s new book The Essential Guide to Portrait Photography:

#2: Corey Russell (@MeatJacket)

I’m pretty thankful for living in one of the nicest parts of Canada , wouldn’t wanna be anywhere else.

#107: thedudeabides67 (@thedudeabides67)

I am thankful for the rich colours of life.

#109: matiassingers (@matiassingers):

I am thankful for @punkpolkadots, @ashwinpande and all other friends who make the next day worth looking forward to

Congratulations! Please contact editor@petapixel.com to claim your prizes.

Thanks again to everyone who participated. We have some pretty massive giveaways lined up, so keep your eyes peeled!

Image credit: Giraffe kindergarten by Focx.

This past week we had a giveaway in which we asked for your favorite photography related websites. The four prizes are memberships of various levels to SmugMug. We received 94 responses through comments on the post and 72 responses through Twitter for a total of 166 entries.

If you’re looking for new photography websites to visit or blogs to follow, you’ll find a lot of good ones in the comments we received.

Here are the four winners, picked randomly using random.org:

Standard Membership Winners ($40)

#4: Yael Talleyrand (@yatalley)

http://photocritic.org/ s more lika a blog … but since i find his stuff veeery cool :)… i guess thats it.

#53: Gil_margey

I like http://beruphoto.com — they pick photos from livejournal

Power Membership Winner ($60)

#32: sneuweger

That is difficult there are so many great sites in my feedreader… so i will choose Scott Kelby’s Photoshop Insider: http://www.scottkelby.com/blog/ not only for his original posts but also for the numerous links to interesting people of “the industry”…

Pro Membership Winner ($150)

#7: Frances Parker (@simplybetrue)

my fave photography-related website? j*’s blog. i heart Jasmine Star http://www.jasminestarblog.com and read her blog everyday.

Congratulations! Please email me at editor@petapixel.com to claim your prize.

Thanks for participating everyone!

Update: This giveaway has ended. Winners were randomly selected and announced here. Thanks for participating!

Things were kind of hectic this week. My bike and laptop decided to both die on the same day, and two days later I became a Mac user for the first time by purchasing a 13-inch Macbook Pro. Might still switch back to Windows next time, but I didn’t want to upgrade to Vista.

Anyhoo, how about another giveaway?

This week I’m giving away four annual subscriptions to the popular photo sharing service SmugMug. The four prizes are:

• 2 standard memberships worth $40 each
• 1 power membership worth $60
• 1 pro membership worth $150

There will be four different randomly selected winners this week. All you have to do to enter this week’s giveaway is to answer the following question:

What is your favorite photography related website?

This could be a photo service, a blog, a forum, or whatever else, as long as it’s related somehow to your passion for photography.

There are two ways to share your answer and enter the contest, and you can use both methods to double your chances:

1. Leave your response as a comment on this PetaPixel.com post
2. Tweet your response, and include the following link to this post anywhere in the tweet: http://j.mp/ppsmgmg

   As long as the link appears in a tweet, you will be entered in this giveaway. You don’t even need to include @petapixel.

The deadline for this giveaway is Saturday, September 19th, 2009. The winners will be randomly selected using random.org.

Good luck!

Update: Forgot to mention this in the original post: existing SmugMug members can still participate in this contest. if you win, the membership will be added to your existing membership.